AUTOANTIBODY PROFILES AND POLYAUTOIMMUNITY IN AGING

Autoimmune diseases are a leading cause of chronic illness and disability, particularly among women and older adults. Many individuals develop more than one autoimmune condition, a phenomenon known as polyautoimmunity. Polyautoimmunity is associated with greater disease burden, more complex treatment needs, and heightened immune dysregulation. Despite its importance, it remains poorly understood, especially in aging populations.

This project will evaluate whether older adults with polyautoimmunity demonstrate unique or intensified autoantibody patterns, and whether specific immune signatures are linked to aging outcomes such as frailty and multimorbidity. The BLSA, with its deeply phenotyped cohort and biobanked serum samples, provides an ideal setting for this work.

The contractor shall construct and perform antibody array testing using a high-throughput immunoproteomics approach for ~1,700 proteins targeting selected autoantigens in  270 blood samples. The contractor must construct and perform antibody assays for tens of thousands of antigens in hundreds of samples AND for hundreds of antigens in tens of thousands of samples. The contractor should support data analysis and interpretation. The contractor needs to be proficient in high-throughput multiplex assays for disease-associated antibodies, as demonstrated by peer-reviewed publications, meeting presentations, and/or other scientific reports.

Specific requirements for the assay platforms are as follows.

• Well-folded and often functional protein antigens, including conformational epitopes
• Use of freshly produced full-length antigens
• Easy data interpretation of target antigens of disease-associated antibodies
• Flexible and expedient adjustment of antigen contents
• Flexible with producing antigens using different expression systems
• Capable of assaying both human and microbial antigens simultaneously
• High-yield protein features with high sensitivity
• Quantitatively reproducible
• Compatible with the adaptive experimental design. Target antigens and the number and type of samples are subject to change as data are generated

THIS NOTICE OF INTENT TO AWARD ON A SOLE-SOURCE BASIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR COMPETITIVE PROPOSALS.

The Government believes Arizona State University is the sole source for this work because it holds proprietary rights to and operates the only available implementation of the NAPPA platform. The technology is not commercially licensed, and its specialized reagents, software, and hardware cannot be sourced elsewhere. ASU’s personnel possess the unique expertise required for assay development, optimization, and data interpretation. No alternative source can perform this work.

However, interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to this notice. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. All responsible sources may submit a capability statement, proposal, or quotation which shall be considered by the agency. The information received will normally be considered solely for the purposes of determining whether to proceed on a non-competitive basis or to conduct a competitive procurement.

Responses to this notice shall contain sufficient information to establish the interested parties' bona-fide capabilities for fulfilling the requirement and include: unit price, list price, shipping and handling costs, the delivery period after contract award, the prompt payment discount terms, the F.O.B. Point (Destination or Origin), the Dun & Bradstreet Number (DUNS), the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), and the certification of business size. All offerors must have an active registration in the System for Award Management (SAM) www.sam.gov. All responses must provide evidence that they can provide equipment that meets all of the requirements in this announcement.

All responses must be received by the closing date and time of this announcement and must reference the sam.gov identifier number.  Responses must be submitted electronically to Christopher Belt, Contracting Officer, NIDA Office of Acquisitions, at cbelt@nida.nih.gov U.S. Mail and Fax responses will not be accepted.